Welcome friends, my name is John Reitmeier and I've been so fortunate to have experienced a lot of travel starting back in 1972. It's time to put the memories in some sort of order, and to add text and pictures to share with our friends and the many listeners to our radio programs. Thanks for coming along on this ride!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Welcome back, wow time goes so fast. First of all, in the year since I've posted, we mostly focused on my father. Dad died on epiphany 2010, January 6. That really was our focus in the past year or so. But I still made some trips. Flying to Las Vegas/Boulder City for business. Frankfurt Germany for business and then around Germany for a week for some fun. Also to Winnipeg Canada for a great weekend. Didn't get a chance to fish or hunt with the Governor of Minnesota this year. Couldn't find caregivers for Dad. BUT things are starting to change now. The Motorhome is almost ready to go. We have a 10 day Tennesse trip coming up. We have a week in Las Vegas booked. Along with a circle trip around Minnesota in May as a couple of Germans are coming to the USA for the first time! I did something I've never done before, in anticipation of some traveling by myself. Back in the early 90's I owned a Cadillac limo for the bed and breakfast, but not exactly a traveling for fun type of vehicle. Well I just bought a Cadillac DTS. Leaseback, 23000 miles, but for my money (about 1/3 of the new price) it's a brand new touring car. And that's what I plan to do with it. It get's about 20 MPG if I drive it carefully (speed doesn't seem to be what takes the miles per gallon down, but rather how carefully you accellerate. So we have some flights, some motorhome trips and some car trips coming up. Some train travel, but nothing planned by boat.

I am for sure however going to do some of the REPOSITIONING crusing in the coming years. Riding the big barges from Europe to the USA or vice versa, as they reposition for the different seasons. Do remember though even though you get an inside cabin for 500 bucks for an 11 day trip, there's about another 500 in port charges, and 3 hundred in fees and then the dogleg flights, so you're still talking about somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000$$ when you're done, not counting tips and a possible hotel stay on the ends. Still all in all a good value! And It's my goal to ride the QE2 one direction, and one of the other boats (I'm going for smaller rather than larger) the other direction in the next few years. BIG HINT BIG HINT! Read the reviews that are posted on the many cruise sites. For sure I'm not going to get on an Norwegian Cruise Line boat until I see the reviews start to change. Just too many bad comments. Sad cause I would have thought that NCL would be tops on the sea! More coming sooner, :-) I promise. Your traveling companion. John